g3nscho Posted February 23, 2016 Share Posted February 23, 2016 Hey guys,i started yesterday already, so this is day 2 for me.I can't really tell a specific reason why I stopped gaming yesterday. I had played a lot over the weekend and I simply felt like: this has to stop - even though everything in my life worked out quite well so far.I'm 20 years old and currently going to university. I play football and I'm a member of a political youth organization. History and politics are one of the topics that I love the most besides gaming (which is hopefully now over).I always had success in my life, but I feel like I could be way further if I wouldn't have been gaming addicted (which I was I feel like - I just managed to get everything done besides that).The only thing that really bothers me is that I never had a girlfriend. I'd say I am quite handsome, maybe a bit too thin for my size but overall pretty ok.Not really introverted, just was never really interested in girls. I would've rather played video games than actual going for a date. Sounds weird, I know.Day 1:I deleted all the games from my computer and went to university to study for several hours. Afterwards I went to the city and bought a book about world war 1, a topic I'm very interested in (such as history in general) but the book was too expensive. I thought about the amount of money I wasted in video games and just bought it. I watched a episode of the new Better Call Saul Season and went to bed pretty early th have enough hours to sleep. Day 2:I woke up pretty early, read the newspaper, watched the news from yesterday (which I always do in the next morning) and went to university again to sutdy. Only a few more weeks until its over. Met a friend I didnt see for a long time and ate together with him. Now I'm going to watch football with friends and possibly tomorrow I'm going again. Has been a long time since I was this year because of a lot of trouble at university, really looking forward to it.At the moment I think of deleting my accounts. I did delete the games, but not the accounts yet. However, I spent so much money that I feel like I'd rather need to sell them. Don't know, maybe it's only protection because I do not want to delete them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cam Adair Posted February 23, 2016 Share Posted February 23, 2016 Hey! Welcome to the forums and thanks for sharing your journal with us. We've got your back so let us know how we can help. I definitely agree that quitting gaming was one of the best things I did for myself and my ability to truly live a great life full of my potential. Keep going, I bet you'll find the same. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WorkInProgress Posted February 24, 2016 Share Posted February 24, 2016 (edited) Hi g3nscho,awesome that you join us here and share your experiences!I had a similiar phase as i was 19. Until then i never had a girlfriend, mostly because girls at my school wasn't interesting at all and i was kind of socially akward with woman. I decided that this is the missing peace to my luck and gone out of my classical friend circle and tried to meet new people(men and women). Actually i found the woman i love and who challenges me to be a better. Long story short: I married her last december. And even if we are fighting a lot sometimes, going out to search for her was the best decision i made so far. I'm sure that quitting games will help you get more time and thinkpower to fokus on things you actually want for your life. By the way, a fullfilled relationsship isn't the missing puzzlepart for happiness. But it helps to have someone to share your miserable life with ,On the point of deleting accounts: if you want quitting games , do it! It is as simple as this. The money you spent is lost in the second you decide to quit video games not at the moment you delete your accounts. It makes no difference if you delete them, if you never play again the money was spent anyway. If you decide after some time you are ready to play again moderatly you will ahve fun without the money spend. This fear of letting go shouldn't influence your decision, because it has nothing to do with the decision of quitting games. It's a classical logical bias.i'm only 26 my lifeexperience is somewhat limited, but I hope my thoughts can help you abit to find your own solutions or clear some things up you allready thought off.greetings Mario Edited February 24, 2016 by WorkInProgress shere instead of share is kind of embarrassing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Somebodyelse Posted February 24, 2016 Share Posted February 24, 2016 Hey guys,i started yesterday already, so this is day 2 for me.I can't really tell a specific reason why I stopped gaming yesterday. I had played a lot over the weekend and I simply felt like: this has to stop - even though everything in my life worked out quite well so far.I'm 20 years old and currently going to university. I play football and I'm a member of a political youth organization. History and politics are one of the topics that I love the most besides gaming (which is hopefully now over).I always had success in my life, but I feel like I could be way further if I wouldn't have been gaming addicted (which I was I feel like - I just managed to get everything done besides that).The only thing that really bothers me is that I never had a girlfriend. I'd say I am quite handsome, maybe a bit too thin for my size but overall pretty ok.Not really introverted, just was never really interested in girls. I would've rather played video games than actual going for a date. Sounds weird, I know.Day 1:I deleted all the games from my computer and went to university to study for several hours. Afterwards I went to the city and bought a book about world war 1, a topic I'm very interested in (such as history in general) but the book was too expensive. I thought about the amount of money I wasted in video games and just bought it. I watched a episode of the new Better Call Saul Season and went to bed pretty early th have enough hours to sleep. Day 2:I woke up pretty early, read the newspaper, watched the news from yesterday (which I always do in the next morning) and went to university again to sutdy. Only a few more weeks until its over. Met a friend I didnt see for a long time and ate together with him. Now I'm going to watch football with friends and possibly tomorrow I'm going again. Has been a long time since I was this year because of a lot of trouble at university, really looking forward to it.At the moment I think of deleting my accounts. I did delete the games, but not the accounts yet. However, I spent so much money that I feel like I'd rather need to sell them. Don't know, maybe it's only protection because I do not want to delete them.Study for 7 hours wow that a lot of time. Hope your studies go well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
g3nscho Posted February 24, 2016 Author Share Posted February 24, 2016 (edited) Day 3:Woke up in the morning and felt terrible. Like I did not have any purpose in life. But I found out how much everything before in my life was so centered on video games.I studied to play games as reward. I worked out to play games as reward - and now without this reward, my life feels meaningless. Everything I did before was because I wanted to play games without a guilty conscience.I guess now it's time to think about something new that rewards me.I went to the university again to study and watched a lot of news about the presidential election in the U.S. Even though I'm from Europe, I am very interested in this topic.Tonight I'm going to party with some friends, didn't do it in a while...maybe this will cheer me up.Also I looked up the prices for my old consoles and want to sell them to buy new running clothes. Maybe this will force me to do more sports again. Thanks for your answers! At the moment it is really hard, I feel really depressed. @WorkInProgress Thanks for you answer! I know that a girlfriend isnt the ultimate key to happiness, but it is a desire inside of my I deeply have after 20 years looking for love @Somebodyelse Well, I did not study 7 hours straight, but that's the time I spent daily at the university at the moment. So far it is going well, hope I can keep it up until the exams are over Edited February 24, 2016 by g3nscho Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cam Adair Posted February 24, 2016 Share Posted February 24, 2016 What you are feeling is normal - gaming gave you a sense of purpose so without gaming at first you might feel the opposite, but it's an opportunity for you to learn more about what your purpose truly is. Instead of getting it from something else, you now get to decide it for yourself. This video can help: How to Find Your Purpose Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karpet Posted February 25, 2016 Share Posted February 25, 2016 I'm a pretty big fan of letting new things come into your life instead of forcing them. I find when I look at the world curiously, it has something to show me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
g3nscho Posted February 25, 2016 Author Share Posted February 25, 2016 Day 4: Relapsed today. Well, not fully. After a night out with friends I woke up pretty late and wanted to watch news on youtube. However I came across a Skyrim video and installed the game again. The good thing is: After 5 minutes of playing I deleted it again, because it felt so meaningless.However I'm still sad that I ended up installing the game again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marquess Posted February 25, 2016 Share Posted February 25, 2016 Good news then! Well, kinda.What you describe is called a slip, not a relapse. Relapse is when you fully regress to your old patterns and do so for a while, thinking "fuck shit shit, gamer 4 life".A slip is what you describe: reinstalling, regretting, and deleting very soon. There's some sort of a grey area between a slip and a full relapse, but deleting after 5 minutes is definitely a slip.So I probably wouldn't even bother with resetting the count for this one. You should actually be proud and happy that you've deleted the thing so fast. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cam Adair Posted February 25, 2016 Share Posted February 25, 2016 Good job catching yourself. What you want to see is that the beginning of the spiral happened when you started to watch a Skyrim video. Watching videos -> cravings to play -> installing games -> and so forth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
g3nscho Posted March 2, 2016 Author Share Posted March 2, 2016 Hey guys, sorry for not posting daily.The problem was I was really busy studying, only two more weeks and I'm finally done.I didnt relapse during this time, I felt pretty fine.The problem is I got diagnosted something pretty shitty at the doctor. Well I don't wanna go in detail but this really fcked me up.It's really a shitty situation because I need to focus on studying and when I'm done in the afternoon I'm just sitting there thinking of what I got diagnosted and how it turns out.So yeah, that's the reason I downloaded WoW again. I played yesterday in the evening for 2 hours b4 going to sleep because it was the only way to stop me thinking of it.I know this sounds like a bad idea, but I'm not so far in stopping my addiction to deal with something like this.Gaming is there really the only thing that helped me to forget about it. I hope everything turns out well and I can stop playing soon again but maybe you can understand that this is at the moment my only way to kinda escape reality. greetings Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WorkInProgress Posted March 2, 2016 Share Posted March 2, 2016 It is always your choice whaht you do. If you feel like this is what you have to do now, I will be the last one to disagree with you. Hope things turn out well for you(or as best as possible).greetings Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cam Adair Posted March 3, 2016 Share Posted March 3, 2016 Gaming is there really the only thing that helped me to forget about it. I hope everything turns out well and I can stop playing soon again but maybe you can understand that this is at the moment my only way to kinda escape reality.This is a key insight. If you want to truly move on from games you'll need to find new ways to deal with stress (ideally in healthy ways!) because stress is going to happen in your life. Going to the gym (working out), going for a walk, talking to a friend, meditation, yoga, etc are all good ways to deal with it. This video I have is also good.Hope it all works out! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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